Trade and economic cooperation between China and Costa Rica
enjoy a rosy outlook as the two countries are strongly
complementary in economic development, a senior Chinese trade
official said on Sunday.
"China boasts a huge market, cost-effective products and a
growing number of companies that wish to invest overseas," said
Jiang Zengwei, vice minister of commerce, during a seminar on
investment in Costa Rica on the sideline of the 11th China
International Fair for Investment and Trade that opened Saturday in
Xiamen.
Costa Rica, on the other hand, enjoys political stability, rich
human resources, lower tariffs as well as preferential policies
towards investors, he said.
Jiang said investment and cooperation between China and Costa
Rica enjoy massive potential for expansion as the two countries
established diplomatic ties only three months ago.
China and Costa Rica, a country with 4.2 million people, set up
diplomatic ties at ambassadorial level on June 1, after the central
American country agreed to break official ties with China's
province of Taiwan.
During the seminar, Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Costa Rica's minister of
foreign trade, briefed Chinese businesses on his country's
investment environment and a series of infrastructure construction
projects.
He said Costa Rica's economy lies largely on foreign trade and
the high-tech industry, and China is its second largest trade
partner.
By the end of June, China had just one investment project in
Costa Rica, a hotel involving US$300,000 of investment from the
Chinese side, according to Ministry of Commerce.
It said Costa Rica had invested in 30 projects in China by the
end of June 2006, involving US$111 million of contractual
investment and US$32.47 million of actual investment. Most of the
investment went to the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and
tourism sectors.
Investment promotion bureaus of the two countries signed a
memorandum of understanding on Sunday, agreeing to further
cooperation and facilitate more investment projects.
China and Costa Rica posted US$1.56 billion of bilateral trade
in the first seven months of this year, up 61.3 percent
year-on-year.
The Chinese side predicted trade for the whole of 2007 will
reach US$3 billion, up from US$2.16 billion reported last year.
Businesses from the two sides struck US$16 million of deals
during a Chinese commodities fair in Costa Rica's capital San Jose
on August 22-25.
(Xinhua News Agency September 10 2007)
